Adaptation of Vipassana Meditation by Convert Buddhists and Sympathizers
Joseph Cheah
Oxford University Press eBooks October 28, 2011 DOI: 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199756285.003.0004 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Buddhism Meditation |
| Key points | Argues that adaptations of Burmese vipassana meditation in the American context, such as incorporating Western psychology and demystifying Buddhist practices, can be understood as cultural rearticulation and, in some cases, as racial rearticulation that helps preserve racial hegemony and privileges surrounding whiteness. |
Abstract
This chapter examines the contemporary adaptation of vipassana meditation by convert Buddhists and sympathizers to the American context. It employs racial formation theory to distinguish between cultural and racial rearticulations of Buddhist ideas, beliefs, and practices. Cultural rearticulation is an ordinary means of taking Asian religious practices and rerepresent them in terms that are recognizable and meaningful for Americans in the mainstream culture. The incorporation of Western psychology into vipassana meditation and the demystification of Buddhist practices are two prime examples of cultural rearticulation of vipassana meditation. While these adaptations can be seen as inevitable products of the transmission of Buddhism in America, they can also be considered examples of racial rearticulation if they demonstrate the ways in which Burmese vipassana meditation has been rearticulated into specific but deliberately chosen forms that help preserve the prevailing system of racial hegemony and privileges surrounding whiteness.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on meditation, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mindfulness: A proposed operational definition. | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mechanisms of mindfulness | 2005 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| How Does Mindfulness Meditation Work? Proposing Mechanisms of Action From a Conceptual and Neural Perspective | 2011 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy for depression | 2006 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Self-awareness, self-regulation, and self-transcendence (S-ART): a framework for understanding the neurobiological mechanisms of mindfulness | 2012 | Theoretical or philosophical paper |